Story+2008-06-14+Cardiff,+England

“Good evening, fine citizens of Cardiff, Wales (crowd cheers) alright…this is our Welsh connection right here (crowd cheers)…”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “From Small Things”**

“Oh yeah…alright…how are we tonight, huh? (crowd cheers) let’s see what you got [checks people’s request signs]…we might be able to, (?) I don’t think we can do that tonight (?)…that’d be a tough one (chuckles) that one we did before, that’s possible…(?) you hold on to that one, what do we got? (chuckles) we’ve practised this one, never played this one in Wales before (chuckles)(crowd cheers) we’ll see what we can do, we’ll see what we can do…(?)… this guy’s been at a few other shows…he usually gets his requests because, uh, he draws fascinating illustrations for the song (chuckles) but, uh…(?)…we’ll do one of these and we’ll dedicate it to Danny tonight… ´cause Danny has the story that you’ll find in so many of my early songs…we were, uh, we were playing in, uh, down south in Richmond, Virginia, it was in the late ‘60s and if you played too long in those days, they really took it to heart and, uh, policemen come in and unplugged the amplifiers and made a big fuss and, uh, Mad Dog Lopez, our drummer at the time, was arrested for interfering with an officer who was doing his duty, trying to shut the band down…and they threw him in jail in Richmond, Virginia, so we came back to New Jersey and in order to get bail money to get him out of jail in Richmond we played a concert in New Jersey but when we played the concert in Jersey, we played a little bit too long so (laughter from the crowd) it was like, this local police department, they got like the first SWAT team ever, I think they really wanted to use it so they all came down to the concert site and they jumped on the stage and a big, a big fuss broke out and Danny – at the time we were playing with these huge Marshall stacks and, uh, Danny pushed some of these over on some police officers…or they fell – he didn’t really push ‘em (chuckles) but, uh, but then the police officers, the ones that, a few ran off for medical attention, a few jumped on the stage, trying to arrest Danny…uh, Danny’s wife got onstage and helped him resisting arrest and I believe that Danny ended up jumping into the crowd and getting away where he was, uh…he was then a fugitive from justice for a month…I know this is a long story to tell people you’ve just met (chuckles) it’s gonna lead up to something – give me my guitar, I need something to defend myself with…but anyway…now we have a show that we have to play so we can get bail money for Danny and Vini and, uh, Danny says he’s gonna play and we’re gonna sneak him onstage right before we play so the cops can’t arrest him but he’s in the parking lot and I go out to get him and ask him to come in and he says he’s frightened because there are police officers on the roof waiting to bust him…by that time he’s been smoking a little something and grown a little bit paranoid (laughter from the crowd) I explained to him that it actually wasn’t so (chuckles) and pulled him out of the car, got in and played the concert, he ran off through the crowd, gave himself up, there was a trial…uh, I don’t remember who won the lawsuit (chuckles) but it all began when…(starts the opening guitar riff) I hope I remember this one…I got it, boys!...”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “Blinded by the Light”**

“Thank you, thank you so much…(?) in the States…here’s, uh, to the end of eight years of bad, bad magic…”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “Magic”**

“A nice little greeting, man, thank you!...”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “The River”**

“Alright!...how we doing? (crowd cheers) that’s good…how we doing over there? (crowd cheers) alright, what about in the back there? (crowd cheers)…(?) this side? (crowd cheers) oooh, oooh!...this is a song called ‘Livin’ in the future’ but it’s about what’s happening now back home…where we come from…there’s a lot of things that we’re proud of, over the past eight years we’ve had to add to the American picture things like rendition and illegal wiretapping, rolling-back of civil liberties…and uh…no right to Habeas Corpus, which…actually this past week the Supreme Court overturned, thank God, and, uh…these are all things that when I was a little kid, you’d grow up, your parents telling you that they’re all things that happen someplace else, never happen at home, this is a song about sleeping through changes that you never thought you’d see where you grew up…Max, give me a hand telling the story…”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “Livin’ in the Future”**

“Big Man…you ready for a house party?...is the band ready?...and I only got one more question…I only got one more question…are you ready? (does the call-and-response-thing with the crowd)...”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “Mary’s Place”**

“Alright, this is for Tom and Hannah…nice little saxophone right there …Bruce, play…Clarence…it’s much bigger, much bigger type than my name is there....makes Clarence happy... alright, Tom and Hannah we’ll try this one for you, see how my voice holds up…it's for you two..." * (thank you, Shesthewelshone on BTX for help on this one.)
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “Jungleland”**

“Big Man, Clarence Clemons, Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) Steve on guitar…thank you, I'd, uh, just like to take a moment and I’d like to do this next song tonight for a long time friend of the E Street Band who passed away suddenly…Tim Russert was an important and unreplaceable voice in American journalism… I watched him hold our politicians feet to the fire on many Sunday afternoons, he was always a strong voice for honesty and accountability in American government but beyond that he was a lovely presence, a good father, husband, and good guy, he was a regular fan, I’d seen him at so many E Street Band shows and I'm going to miss looking down and seeing that big smiling face of his in the crowd so (crowd cheers) we send this…this song tonight out all the way back to the States for his son Luke, his wife Maureen, his dad Big Russ, and all the Russert family – Tim, God bless you, we’re gonna miss you…”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “Thunder Road” (following “Jungleland”)**

“Thank you, Cardiff! (crowd cheers) thank you, Wales! (crowd cheers) thank you for coming out to the show tonight…for supporting our music over all these years…Wales!...we’re coming back! (crowd cheers)… (…) Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) Little Steven(crowd cheers) Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) and the biggest man you´ve ever seen: Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers) Cardiff! (crowd cheers) Wales! (crowd cheers) Cardiff! (crowd cheers) Cardiff! (crowd cheers) Cardiff! (crowd cheers) Cardiff! (crowd cheers) you´ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, earth-shocking, booty-shaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary (crowd: “E Street Band”)…”
 * 14.06.08 Cardiff, Wales, intro to “American Land”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//